The Early English Text Society is an organization to reprint early English texts, especially those only available in manuscript. Most of their volumes are in Middle English and Old English. It was founded in England in 1864. Their stated goal in a report of the first year of their existence was "on the one hand, to print all that is most valuable of the yet unprinted MSS. in English, and, on the other, to re-edit and reprint all that is most valuable in printed English books, which from their scarcity or price are not within the reach of the student of moderate means." They are known for being the first to print many English manuscripts, including Cotton Nero A.x, which contains Pearl, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and other poems. By their own count, they have published 344 volumes. Middle English is the name given by historical linguistics to the diverse forms of the English language spoken between the Norman invasion of 1066 and the mid-to-late 15th century, when the Chancery Standard, a form of London-based English, began to become widespread, a process aided by the... Note: This page contains phonetic information presented in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) using Unicode. ... The Lindisfarne Gospels is but one of the treasures collected by Sir Robert Cotton. ... Pearl is a Middle English alliterative poem written in the late 14th century. ... Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a late 14th century alliterative romance recorded in a single manuscript, which also contains three other pieces of an altogether more Christian orientation. ...
External links
Early English Text Society website
Of the Orthographie and Congruitie of the Britan Tongue, available freely at Project Gutenberg
Includes the January 1865 report on the first year of the Early English Text Society
The "earlyEnglish bestiary" is a thirteenth century verse translation of an earlier Latin Physiologus attributed to Theobaldus.
The English translation is found in British Library, Arundel MS 292, which is the manuscript used by Morris for this edition.
The "earlyEnglish" of this text is a transitional form of English; it neither the Old English of Beowulf nor the Middle English of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, though it has similarities to both.
This is the Old English and Middle English term for the triumphant descent of Christ into hell (or Hades) between the time of His Crucifixion and His Resurrection, when, according to Christian belief, He brought salvation to the souls held captive there since the beginning of the world.
Writers of Old English prose homilies and lives of saints continually employ the subject, but it is in medieval English literature that it is most fully found, both in prose and verse, and particularly in the drama.
English translations were made of it in the Middle Ages, and in the long Middle English poem known as "Cursor Mundi" a paraphrase of it is found.
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